A Promise
by HiddenTruthandLies
Summary: Imagine going through something thousands of times and everything is the same. The scenery, the people, the dialogue, the inside jokes. Everything becomes unoriginal and nothing truly seems different. Frisk has done this 1,999 times already and Chara wants to 'end her suffering'. Perhaps Frisk is willing to give her SOUL to escape...or not. Image by Peewed and slight Sans/Frisk.


_**This is my first Undertale one-shot fic so if it isn't the greatest, please understand! Well, hope you like it anyways!**_

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It won't stop. Every time she'd get the happiest ending possible, she'd be thrown back underground; back to the very beginning. Frisk was forced to go through the same thing over and over for all eternity like this was her punishment for climbing up the mountain in the first place. All she wanted to do was live happily with her friends, family, and secret crush. However, each time she was placed back to before she broke the barrier, to the point before even meeting Flowey and Toriel, she felt like her emotions and joy would gradually slip away.

When she had woken up on the bed of flowers for the 100th time, she no longer felt happy to see Toriel again, knowing that she'd simply gain a piece of Butterscotch-cinnamon pie regardless of what her preference was. She knew about the levers, she knew about the walk of independence that Toriel would make her do every time she went back. She knew that Toriel would be expecting her to be injured but each time, Frisk would show her that she hadn't gained a single scratch. In the end, she would eventually end up leaving her goat mother to set out for Snowdin; and it never mattered how long she delayed herself on her departure either.

Frisk remembered that she had tried staying with Toriel for over at least two months and she couldn't tell a lie: it was nice to have seen something somewhat different. Then on another run, she decided to stay with Toriel for the entirety of said run despite hearing the door to exit the ruins being destroyed. The run ended when she grew sick and eventually died-causing her to wake up on the bed of golden flowers once again.

In every run where she'd leave the ruins, she would always turn around and shake Sans' hand before he even gave her the prompting to do so and he always seemed so surprised. Even then, Frisk would laugh at his jokes, even if she'd heard them a hundred times before. Sometimes, he wouldn't even be there when she exited the ruins and it would make her sad inside. When it came to Papyrus, she knew exactly what to say and do each time but decided to always let him speak before hand. Regardless of whatever she said to him, he'd always be extremely flattered and talk about his greatness. Truly, the tall skeleton brother had to be the biggest narcissist she'd ever met.

Sometimes she would stay with Sans and Papyrus and the trio would be best friends forever; Sans usually having hide Frisk from Undyne whenever the fish lady came over to teach Papyrus how to cook. At one point, the brothers decided to have a faux battle with Frisk; whom accepted because she truly couldn't do any real damage. However, when the taller brother let his guard down, Frisk had seen it as an opportunity to strike and she hit him hard.

Harder than she should've. Papyrus' head disconnected from his body and fell into Frisk's shaking hands. She never meant to hurt the brother like that. This would look even worse to Sans since he wasn't here, but he was going to be at any moment. She could only watch as Pap's body turned to dust while his head lingered.

" _H-HUMAN...IT WAS AN A-ACCIDENT. I UNDERSTAND Y-YOU DIDN'T MEAN THIS. TELL MY BROTHER YOU DIDN'T HURT ME ON PURPOSE. AND TELL HIM THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS TAUGHT YOU WELL!_ " And then his head turned to dust in her hands. She recalled how she couldn't stop herself from crying over what she'd done. The girl in the blue sweater hugged at the dead brother's scarf as Sans found her, his happy demeanor disappearing when he saw the child clutching his brother's scarf. When he'd asked what had happened, Frisk was already a sobbing mess and was begging for forgiveness.

That run ended when Sans lifted her from the ground with his magic and slammed her quite hard through sharply edged bones he'd summoned.

With Undyne, everything went exactly the same each time Frisk went through different runs. However, when she was escaping the leader of the royal guard through the Hotlands entrance, her body was pierced with a spear and her ringing phone fell from her grasp; causing Sans to be roused from his sleep at his station. Before she died that time, she could hear the clanking of Undyne's armor as she approached to most likely finish her off. The next thing she heard was a yell of pain.

" _why...? she was a good kid..._ " followed by "... _you won't remember this anyways..._ " Everything went dark soon after.

Alphys and Mettaton didn't really give her any issues aside from being killed multiple times by his EX transformation. What bothered her when she finally beat Mettaton was how relieved he looked that she hadn't died. Not only that he said the strangest thing as well.

" _Looks like we're off the hook this time...from what? I don't really know. All I know is that you should get going, darling! Asgore awaits!_ " His systems had shut down due to lack of battery power right after.

When she finally approached the Judgement Hall, where Sans would no doubt be, Frisk only stared blankly as he gave his speech once again as he'd done multiple times before. At the end, he let her pass just like he'd always do; although he didn't simply disappear into the shadows. Frisk walked past him on this 1,999 attempt and he said something completely unexpected.

" _i'm rooting on ya to end this quickly. judging by your expression, you most likely know what to do._ " Frisk turned around, silently staring at the place he'd been. Once more, she was the only one in the hall.

Eventually, after at least a thousand different runs, after she reached the end, all she could do was stand alone on the cliffside and stare at the same sunrise; blankly awaiting the next reset to come. It was hopeless to cry at this point because it would come soon anyways. None of her friends would remember these events that had occurred so many times already. No one would ever understand the pain of dealing with reset after reset with no real way to stop it without making any real progression. However that wouldn't really work as Frisk would simply die of boredom.

" **Are you going to give up?** " Came the voice she'd heard only two times before. It was much closer than before and it was apparent it was a girl's voice.

" **Are you ready to give me control? I want to have fun too you know.** " A figure appeared in front of her; their body transparent. It was a girl around her age with bright red eyes. Her hair splayed out; the light brown locks just barely passing her shoulders. She wore a light lime green sweater with a single yellow stripe going across the center horizontally. Her leggings were a dark brown and in her hand Frisk was able to see the very clean, very sharp knife in the girl's right hand.

"Who...are you?" Frisk whispered blankly; any real shock or fear having left her a long time ago after the 468th reset. The transparent girl giggled maniacally and floated just in front of her face.

" **My name? Dear Frisk...I shall tell you. It is Chara. I am here through your sheer determination to get out of this endless cycle of hell. I know you want out...don't you?** " The girl, Chara explained, her rosy cheeks now quite prominent in the emotionless girl's eyes. Chara seemed to grin even more when she nodded lightly.

"Yes...But there isn't a way out. I already have tried 1,999 different ways. The next reset will make it 2,000. You can't….ever get me out of this." As soon as she stated this, Chara let out a howl and began laughing like whatever Frisk said was just one big joke. Frisk raised an eyebrow at the floating girl and watched as she wiped tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. At this point, the girl in the striped lime shirt had moved away her hand with the knife wrapped around her waist.

" **Hahahaha…Oh Frisky my dear….You have no idea how HILARIOUS that sounded! Of COURSE there is a way out of this hell. You just have to do one thing in order to leave it all behind.** " The girl told, her voice dropping its joking tone and becoming more serious and menacing. Frisk stared at the girl silently; patiently awaiting her answer. Chara scoffed as she was clearly annoyed at the little determined copy before her.

" **Well, since you asked SO nicely...I'll tell you. All you need to do-** " she brought herself by her double's left ear and whispered quietly " **\- is give me your SOUL. Do that and you will never have to suffer ever again.** "

Frisk's eyes widened at the requirement to escape this hell. Her SOUL...the very culmination of her being. If what Chara was saying was true, all she'd have to do is give her SOUL to the girl in front of her and all her problems would drift away. Then she'd be able to finally live her happy ending out with her friends instead of getting the other end of the stick and having to go back underground once more.

"Give you my...SOUL..." Frisk muttered; her body filled with a newfound hope. A hope she hadn't felt in such a long time.

" **Yes, Frisk. Give it to me and I'll make all of your suffering stop. No more need to worry about resets. I will take care of it. I will...ERASE...your problem,** " her red eyes glanced at the sunrise with pure disgust and hatred. Frisk remained silent as usual.

" **Well? What will it be Frisk? Yes...or no?** " Chara's final choice was upon her. The glare that was being sent her way made it feel as though her choice now would lead to something that would seem...sinful. But maybe leading a sinful life would be much better than the life she was experiencing now. But then again, it could very well be the exact opposite.

Either way, she had made her decision.

"Chara...I-"

"yo! frisk. you still up here by your bonesome?" A voice from behind her called; causing her to turn around in surprise. Standing in front of her was her best friend; Sans. His glowing white eyes gazing happily at her and his hands still stuffed into his pockets. Frisk couldn't help but force a smile onto her expressionless face; a loud growl of frustration escaping Chara's transparent lips.

" **That comedian...** **He just LOVES to interrupt at the best part!** " Chara said with a scowl. As Sans approached them, an aura of unease settled in. Alongside it was something else. Something she hadn't felt since the first few resets.

Peace.

"Sans? What's wrong? I was going to catch up with you guys-ah!" Frisk began, only be pulled into an unexpected embrace by the skeleton. His soft light blue sweater filled her with warmth, and not the kind of warmth from the weather. She felt her spirits lift somewhat.

"Sans..."

"kid...it's as plain as the nose on your face. you know about the resets too, huh? Sans whispered, a soft chuckle leaving him. Tears began to form in her eyes. ' _Sans...do you know too? Do you know about the resets?_ ' Frisk thought to herself, her arms wrapping around him. Chara frowned, her hand gripping around the knife.

" **NO! Don't listen to him! He's nothing but a troublemaker! I-I bet he's lying to you! Yeah that has to be it!** " The transparent girl shouted; enraged by the fact she was being ignored.

"c-c'mon kid...don't hold it in anymore. i'm here for ya. i'll always be here for ya. believe me, i've seen this whole spiel almost 2,000 times myself. so let it all out...it's okay now." As soon as Sans spoke these words, Frisk could no longer hold back the tears from falling down her face.

"Sans I...I'm so sorry! I-I've been keeping it to myself this whole time! E-every time a reset happens I-I feel like nobody re-remembers what we did last! W...what I did to save t-them! I care about e-everyone...I LOVE everyone. I don't want to h-hurt anyone but I don't wa-want to keep going through this end-endless c-cycle!" Everything that the young girl had kept within the depths of her soul was being released

Chara reached out towards Frisk, only for her entire form to shake. It seemed her time was running out once again. Her glowing red eyes dilated.

" **W-What?! No….NO! I REFUSE TO GO BACK AGAIN! THIS HAPPY ENDING IS PATHETIC! SHE'LL NEVER BE FREE!** " Chara cried out to no one in particular, the only person being able to communicate with her a sniveling crying mess. The fading girl glared daggers at Sans; her knife slashing at his head in a vain attempt to hurt him. Tears fell from her face as she was powerless to do anything to the skeleton interfering in her attempts to gain a body.

" **Hmph...Damn you, Sans. You...you got me again. B-Brother...looks like...our reunion will...will have to be delayed once more, huh? Hee hee hee…** " Chara whimpered sadly, her smile never leaving her face as she began to laugh. She continued to laugh and laugh; tears falling from her eyes in rapid succession.

Slowly, she reached out an empty hand towards Frisk, her hand simply going through the child's hair like wind.

" **One day...one day...you'll be mine. I can feel it. Your determination, it won't always be there to save you.** " The girl uttered, her final breath being taken as her body disintegrated into nothing but air.

"let's go home, frisk. we got a whole future ahead of us. nobody is gonna take you away from us ever again, okay?" Sans whispered to the crying girl softly, lightly stroking her head. Frisk nodded and held him tighter. With that, the skeleton stared up at the sun tears falling from his face and his left eye glowing an eerie sky blue.

"never again...i promise."

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 _ **Welp! That's all she wrote for this. If you enjoyed it, you can review if you want to.**_

 _ **Or not... Do whatever you wish! :D**_

 _ **Laters~**_

 _ **-Hidden**_


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